17-year-old dies after being shot inside NYCHA building in Harlem
HARLEM, Manhattan (WABC) -- A teenager has died after being shot in the chest at a NYCHA building in Harlem on Wednesday.
The 17-year-old male, identified as Trequan Wingfield, was shot in the chest at the Polo Ground Towers located at 2971 Frederick Douglas Boulevard just before 4 p.m., according to police.
He was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he later died.
Six small orange cones covered the shell casings that were practically in Ruth Mackins' backyard.
"I was laying down watching TV and I heard like five or six shots," Mackins said. "This is too close, that didn't sound like firecracker."
She wishes it was, but the rush of police and detectives smack dab in the middle of the courtyard at the towers proved otherwise.
Darlene Rhodes was sitting just steps away from where the bullets started flying.
"I said, let me go upstairs and eat some lunch and now I hear this, this is ridiculous," Rhodes said.
The shooting happened just moments after she made it upstairs to visit her elderly mother.
The victim's neighbor Gerald Gee said Wingfield had a baby on the way.
"Whatever he was doing he was staying with that girl I see him going in and out with her," he said. "I guess pre-natal care and all that and look what happens. Now you got a loss now. You're growing up with no baby father. Child man. He's a child himself ... 17, 18 years old. Sad."
Authorities are looking into whether Wingfield was the intended target, and what the motive was behind his killing.
Police say a male suspect wearing a blue hoodie fled southbound on Eighth Avenue towards West 155th Street and Bradhurst Avenue.
No arrests have been made.
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